Over-regulation of the press could strike a “mortal blow” to the newspaper
industry if nothing is done to bring internet sites into line, Dominic
Mohan, the editor of the Sun, has told the Leveson Inquiry.

Mr Mohan challenged Lord Justice Leveson to find a way of creating a “level playing field” in which websites had to abide by the same rules as mainstream news organisations.

He cited examples of news stories which he had decided not to publish for ethical reasons, but which subsequently turned up on websites all over the world as he illustrated the problems facing newspapers in the internet age.

“I think the combination of an overregulated press with an unregulated internet is a very, very worrying thought for an industry that employs many thousands of people,” said Mr Mohan, who has edited the Sun since 2009.

“One thing I would ask out of this Inquiry is that the internet and the press, that there's a level playing field in terms of the way they're dealt with, because I do think it could be a potentially mortal blow to the newspaper industry that's already wounded.”

He said that when an MP named Ryan Giggs last year as the Premier League player who had taken out an injunction against his lover, “my heart sank” as he wrote the front-page headline: “It’s Ryan Giggs.”

Mr Mohan added: “There were already several million people out there who already knew (his identity) because…there had been speculation on social networking sites and … they weren't subject to the restrictions we'd been under.”

The former showbusiness reporter also confirmed that in 2002, during a speech at an awards ceremony, he jokingly thanked “Vodafone’s lack of security for the Mirror’s showbiz exclusives”.

He said the comment was “a cheap shot at the Mirror designed to undermine the quality of their journalism because they had had a particularly good year”.

He added that there had been “rumours in the industry” about the Mirror hacking phones to obtain stories, but he had “no evidence” that they were true.

Earlier, the leveson Inquiry heard that Gordon Brown threatened to “destroy” News International during a furious phone call to Rupert Murdoch after the Sun switched its allegiance from Labour to the Tories.

Kelvin Mackenzie, who edited the tabloid for 13 years, said the then prime minister was furious that his keynote speech to the Labour Party conference had been “blown off” the front page of the Sun by its support for David Cameron.

He vented his anger by ringing Mr Murdoch, who was in his New York office at the time, and, as Mr Murdoch put it, “roared at me for 20 minutes”.

Mr Mackenzie confirmed, in answer to a question from counsel to the inquiry Robert Jay QC that Mr Murdoch had told him Mr Brown said: “You are trying to destroy me and my party. I will destroy you and your company.”

Mr Mackenzie, who edited the Sun from 1981 to 1994, told the inquiry into media ethics that he had never been able to understand why government ministers spent so much time courting the press.

“I would probably speak to Mrs Thatcher twice a year and individual cabinet ministers six to ten times a year,” he said. “The purpose of it was for them to explain their views on what geniuses they were.

“I was always astonished that a prime minister would want to meet a tabloid journalist with one GCSE. I wondered where the equivalence was in that discussion.”

After Mr MacKenzie’s evidence, a spokeswoman for Mr Brown said: “It has already been pointed out that there was no such phone call nor communication between Mr Brown and Mr Murdoch.” News International declined to comment.